Gandhara stupa and Alexander E. Caddy: A contextual investigation of an archaeological campaign into Swat

Abstract

Indo-Pakistani archaeology has a long history in terms of the epistemological discourse of internalism and externalism. The former may be related to methodical-theoretical developments in the discipline, while the latter to the overall socio-cultural context. Gandharan archaeology of the colonial period vividly exhibits both the features right from the beginning till 1947. The present study attempts to investigate the archaeological of Alexander Caddy to swat valley in 1896. He visited the area and surveyed, photographed and dug a number of cultural heritage sites, especially Buddhist stupa. The famous Loriyan-tangai stupa is intimately linked with his name. It is to be noted that Caddy’s mission was supported by the Bengal government in order to obtain pieces of Gandhara art for the imperial collection of Calcutta Museum. He submitted his report to the government, which was published and lost. But, recently, a copy of it was recovered from the Malakand archives which is studied by Kurt Behrendt. The present study critically analyzes the work of Caddy from externalist and internalist viewpoints in order to appreciate its imperial, legal and methodical context with a special focus on Loriyan-tangai stupa.